The present invention relates to a circulating aerial ropeway for conveying material such as loose or bulk goods, the ropeway comprising individual cars acting as individual conveying units for conveying the material, and track and hauling ropes arranged parallel to one another in the longitudinal conveying direction. The cars have containers for the material and running wheels for running along the track rope; the hauling rope is connected to the cars by coupling means. The circulation is horizontal, i.e. the start and finish are spaced apart horizontally, even though there may be a considerable change in altitude.
Circulating aerial ropeways have been known for a long time, and in general terms, they operate according to a single rope system (acting both as track rope and hauling rope) or as a two-rope system in which the track rope serves as the running track and the hauling rope moves the cars from a loading station to an unloading station and back. If the conveying path is long, it can be divided into a number of hauling rope sections and/or track rope sections.
There are articles describing circulating aerial ropeways in "Fordern und Heben", 1966, pages 649 to 653 and in "Materials Handling News", September 1979, pages 43 to 47. As a matter of terminology, they can be called circulating aerial cableways and the term "cable" be used instead of "rope".
In uncouplable aerial ropeways, the coupling means comprise means for coupling and uncoupling the cars to and from the hauling rope, and the hauling rope or hauling and track rope circulates continuously. When the cars are uncoupled, normally at the stations, they are free of the hauling rope, and the arrangement is normally such that the cars are automatically coupled to the hauling rope prior to leaving a station and are automatically uncoupled from the hauling rope on entering a station. If desired, rails can serve as track for the cars in the stations. Thus for loading or unloading, or for checking or repairing the rail track at the stations, the cars can be uncoupled, and the cars can also be moved to repairing or storage tanks.
In previous uncouplable circulating aerial ropeways, the car has a carriage which runs on the rails in the stations and in a two-rope system also runs on the track rope between stations; the car also has a suspension which is fixed by means of a pivot bolt to the carriage and the container of the car is carried on the lower end of the suspension; the coupling means often forms a unit with the carriage.
With known uncouplable aerial ropeways, rates of conveyance have usually been 650 tons per hour or less. Although higher rates of conveyance are desirable, they cause difficulty. On the one hand, the time interval between cars cannot be too short. On the other hand, heavier loadings on the individual cars and also shorter spacings require rope sizes and weights which can become impracticable. With aerial ropeways with rates of conveyance above about 400 tons per hour, the track ropes are already so heavy that even if there is sufficient space available, transport and installation are lengthy and costly operations which consume a lot of energy. The hauling ropes have their dimensions limited for the same reasons as the track ropes, and higher rates of conveyance can lead to short hauling rope sections which are not satisfactory both economically and technically.
German patent specification No. 21 50 939 suggests a combination of ropeway and continuous conveyor; however one would expect complex difficulties and rough operation. The ropeway suggested in German patent specification No. 858 706 would have similar problems. Both suggestions have not been adopted in practice.
The invention is based on the appreciation that it is desirable to provide a circulating aerial ropeway of relatively light construction which can achieve substantially higher rates of conveyance than 400 or 650 tons per hour, for instance up to 2,500 tons per hour.